A Sun Blog

Entertainment Blog with editor Bill Dean

One of the busiest weekends of spring shines with the return of one of North Central Florida’s largest and oldest art festivals along with a brand-new comedy of derring-do at the Hipp, plus music at the Prairie Creek Lodge, dance at Santa Fe College and all sorts of vehicles at Tioga Town Center. 1. Santa Fe College Spring Arts Festival The longest-running arts festival in North Central Florida returns downtown along Northeast First Street for its 46th year with 200-plus artists and entertainment on two stages. Saturday’s performances… Read More »

Imagination, wonder and an appreciation for musical chops from big bands to the blues are all that’s needed to enjoy a weekend of theatrical, cinematic and musical creativity. There’s an imaginative new show at the Hipp, an experimental film festival at The Wooly, and top-notch musical performers Saturday and Sunday. 1. ”Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play” Starting tonight, the Hipp’s new musical comedy recounts a post-apocalyptic (and powerless) future where survivors entertain themselves by recreating “The Simpsons.” Shows begin at 8 p.m. Friday, 5 and 8:30… Read More »

Sounds of the holidays and special benefits ring out through the weekend starting tonight with events downtown and beyond, and continuing Saturday at the Thomas Center and at Santa Fe College. On Sunday, catch a special benefit blues concert for the Wounded Warrior veterans at the Dirty Bar. Pond Lighting This favorite Gainesville tradition returns tonight when North Florida Regional Medical Center flips the switch to illuminate 70,000 lights that will turn its year-round Duck Pond into a dazzling display for the holidays. Area groups including the… Read More »

Gainesville may have no shortage of budding filmmakers, but how many can produce an incisive, 5-minute film in a single day? That’s the challenge of this weekend’s 24-Hour Film Competition, an annual cinematic gauntlet thrown down by University of Florida Performing Arts, which invites teams of filmmakers to flex their celluloid muscles in a competition that is free and open to the public. The rules are basic but won’t be fully divulged until teams report at 1 p.m. Saturday to the Phillips Center to receive parameters, waiver forms and DVDs. Each film… Read More »

It’s an indelible sequence from the film that became her best-known: A sultry Rita Hayworth, resplendent in all black, serenades a crowd in a nightclub before starting an impromptu striptease — only to be hustled offstage and into the arms of her angry husband, played by Glenn Ford. The sequence from “Gilda,” Charles Vidor’s 1946 film set in Argentina, is one of the most iconic sequences in film noir, says Roger Beebe, who is featuring “Gilda” as the leadoff film in a series of classic movies starting tonight at The Wooly.… Read More »

“The Ultimate Thriller,” a touring tribute concert to Michael Jackson, is planned for the Phillips Center on July 12. The production, which features singer Fabio Morda as Jackson with a 10-piece ensemble including four dancers and two backup singers, is based on Jackson’s ”Bad” and “Dangerous” tours from the late 1980s and early ’90s. Former Jackson collaborators involved in staging the production include choreographer/principal dancer Lavell Smith, who worked on three tours for the singer; Mic Thompson, a dancer who appeared in the videos for “Dangerous” and “Ghosts”; and Michael Prince, an audio engineer… Read More »

Thursday’s opening of the art exhibit “Blues Pioneers and their Progeny” at the Thomas Center — and its special concert by bluesman Willie Green — was a fitting kickoff to Gainesville’s month-long celebration of African-American Music Appreciation Month, which will turn the “Free Fridays” Concert Series into a feast of sounds by well-known performers from June 7 to June 28 at Bo Diddley Community Plaza. As a local tie-in to June’s nationally celebrated African-American Music Appreciation Month, all ”Free Fridays” concerts in June will play to the theme,… Read More »

Gainesville musician Chris McCarty can be seen Tuesday on “Daytime,” a mid-morning TV show produced in Tampa and carried on the Dish Network. McCarty, a pop-rock singer/guitarist who also performed Friday at Tioga Town Center, taped an appearance on the show Friday that included an interview segment as well as a performance of the song “Just Live.” Maureen Famiano, executive producer of Riverbanks Studios, which syndicates “Daytime” to stations around the country, said McCarty had been recommended for the show… Read More »

Gainesville musician Chris McCarty can be seen today on “Daytime,” a mid-morning TV show produced in Tampa and carried on the Dish Network. McCarty, a pop-rock singer/guitarist who also performed Friday at Tioga Town Center, taped an appearance on the show Friday that included an interview segment as well as a performance of the song “Just Live.” Maureen Famiano, executive producer of Riverbanks Studio, which syndicates “Daytime” to stations around the country, said McCarty had been recommended for the show… Read More »

The recent opening of “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” nationwide put the spotlight on animated or children’s films with an environmental message. And while it’s generated a whale of discussion about such themes in animated films, it’s neither the first nor the biggest plotwise when it comes to going green. Here are four other animated films that mixed environmental messages, however subtle, with catchy storylines and eye-popping animation work. “Rio” Last year’s animated tale of a rare blue macaw journeying to Rio de Janeiro to mate… Read More »

About This Blog

Before being plugged into Gainesville’s arts and entertainment scene, Sun Entertainment Editor Bill Dean plugged into the equivalent of a Marshall half-stack in a quest for reinvention as Billy Van Halen. That was before he began writing about arts and entertainment at newspapers in Greenville, S.C., and in Lakeland, Fla., before coming to Gainesville in 2006. His multiple journalism awards include three New York Times Chairman Awards and the Henry Grady Award for Mid-Career Achievement from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism.